I think you are misinterpreting - Edit 1
Before modification by darius_sedai at 20/11/2010 04:24:46 PM
ToM (Wounds) - 'This is not about me. Egwene al'Vere is a child. But the Amyrlin is not. I may be young, but the Seat in ancient... This place is what a person is. The Amyrlin is the White Tower, and the White Tower will not bend. It defies you, Mesaana, and your lies.'
This is absolute nonsense IMO. It's fair enough to say that what a person is determines their power in TAR, but the comparison is hugely flawed. The Amyrlin Seat is not more ancient or greater than the Forsaken (except for moral superiority, which TAR does not care about from the evidence we have). The Forsaken are much older than the Amyrlin Seat and are, even if falsely, legendary. Their legendary status is actually what gives them power here, and it is obvious as Egwene flees as soon as she senses Mesaana is in the room. She is afraid to face anything that is called 'Forsaken' because of the implications. Even the Wise Ones look pensive and restrained when Egwene says that she is facing one of the 'Shadowsouled'. Egwene actually defeats Mesaana by convincing her subconscious that Mesaana is not as great as she is, but the underlying theory that she puts forward is untrue. The Amyrlin Seat cannot match the Forsaken in terms of presence - indeed, the Forsaken are some of the oldest legends of the third Age, no matter how erroneously they were made.
Egwene's point isn't that the Amyrlin is more legendary than the Forsaken. She's telling Mesaana that she is facing more than simply Egwene al'Vere, she is facing the a woman who represents 3000+ years of leadership.
Additionally, the Forsaken are not older than the Amyrlin in these terms. The oldest of them was what 500 or so years old at most ... the WT has endured for thousands of years. The Forsaken merely pre-date the Amyrlin.
I don't think Egwene tricked her subconscious here, I think she just knew that she would not be defeated. Mesaana, like all of the Forsaken, are fundamentally weak and selfish. Mesaana's strength of will comes from her arrogance not from confidence, eventually she was going to be destroyed by someone like Egwene. Egwene's little speech was to undermine Mesaana's arrogant belief that she was superior to Egwene.